Merry Christmas, Love Artie and Quinn
by DryadSpeaks
Summary: Spinoff of All My Dreams Chapter 74 and The Smile on Your Face Chapter 57.  I believe the title says it all.  HAPPY HOLIDAYS!  Quartie ficathon coming up in January.  Check out the Quinn and Artie Forum for more details!


"Linds, you have to leave me alone for a couple of minutes. Quinn and her mom are going to be here any second, and I need to get this finished before they get here."

Artie didn't like telling Lindsay that he couldn't give her all his attention, but sometimes it needed to be done. And this was one of those times.

"Fine," she sighed, picking up the small box of hair ribbons she had brought into his room. "I'll just go get Mom to help me."

After she left, he turned back to the task at hand. He had three items laid out before him, and was silently cursing himself for not wrapping them before Christmas morning.

The first item, the scarf he had made for Quinn, was fairly easy to wrap. He took a couple of minutes fiddling with the roll of ribbon, before deciding it looked fine without. He knew that he could make it curly if he ran the edge of the scissors along it, but it just wasn't working.

The second item, a book of poems by Thomas Gray, because he knew that _Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard_ was one of Quinn's favourites, proved to be even easier to wrap than the first.

After placing the two somewhat neatly-wrapped parcels to one side, he stared at the third item. How was he going to wrap that? He was just about to get started, when he heard the doorbell. His grandparents and his aunt and uncle had already arrived, which meant one thing.

Quinn and her mom were at the door.

**

* * *

**

"Mom, would you relax? It's going to be fun," Quinn assured her mother as they stood on the Abrams' porch. Originally, Judy had agreed, but that morning she had tried to tell Quinn that maybe they shouldn't go to one of Artie's family gatherings.

Quinn told her that they wouldn't have been invited if they weren't welcome. It took a bit of talking, but she managed to convince her mother that they should go.

"I know, dear," Judy said, her smile widening. "I've just never really done anything like this before."

Quinn was about to say something, when the door opened.

"Hi," muttered Michael, letting them in. "Is there food in that basket?"

Quinn laughed. "Hi Michael, it's nice to see you too. And this basket is a gift, so you're just going to have to wait!"

Quinn handed the large, wrapped basket to Michael, and asked him to put it under the tree, and then she hung their coats on the rack to the left of the door.

"QUINN!" Lindsay yelled, coming around the corner and throwing herself at Quinn. A moment later, she yelled "QUINN'S MOM!" and flung herself at Judy. Once she felt she had hugged Judy long enough, she dragged the two of them into the living room.

After a round of introductions, which resulted in Judy seated on the couch between Artie's grandparents, Quinn noticed that her boyfriend wasn't in the room.

"Where's Artie?" she asked Beth, looking towards the hallway.

"Oh, in his room. You can go get him if you like. He should be finished what he was doing."

As Quinn was about to get up, Lindsay jumped up. "I want to go. I think he's wrapping presents for you, Quinn."

Quinn grinned, believing that this could easily be the case. She nodded, and Lindsay ran down the hall.

**

* * *

**

After a few minutes, Lindsay re-entered the living room with Artie following directly behind her.

"Sorry," he said, "I just had a couple of things to deal with."

Quinn got up from her seat, and went over to where he had parked himself, next to the Christmas tree.

"Merry Christmas Artie," she said, wrapping her arms gently around him.

Artie returned the sentiment, and then pulled her off balance, so that she fell into his lap.

"Artie," she whispered into his ear, "your grandparents, parents, aunt and uncle, and my mom are all sitting here." Just in case he didn't notice.

"That's ok," he whispered back, "I know I'm like furniture to you, so just make yourself comfortable."

She grinned, and leaned back, resting her head on his shoulder. "You know I didn't mean you're like furniture," she whispered into his ear. "Are you ever going to let me forget that?"

"Probably not," he whispered back.

After a few minutes of casual conversation, Beth announced that she needed to finish up with the food, and left the living room with Judy, Artie's aunt Marge, his grandmother, and Lindsay in tow.

A few seconds after everyone left, Quinn decided she should help too, and headed towards the kitchen.

"Can I help with anything?" she asked, watching the flurry of oven mitts, pot holders, and covered dishes happening in the kitchen.

"You can help me set the table!" Lindsay announced, dragging her over to the cabinet that held the dishes.

**

* * *

**

As Quinn and Lindsay were setting the table, Artie decided to return to his room and finish his wrapping. He excused himself, and left the living room. As he was almost out of earshot, he heard his grandfather say something about "always leaving things to the last minute like a true Abrams," and couldn't help but grin. It was a trait shared by everyone in the family. He was glad that Quinn didn't also have that trait...her organization and the timely manner in which she did things helped to balance out the fact that he never really finished anything until just before it was needed...and even that didn't always happen.

He threw the quilt off his bed, revealing the gift he had yet to wrap. He had been thinking about it while sitting in the living room, a difficult task with someone as hot as Quinn sitting on his lap, but he thought he had come up with an idea.

He reached into his closet, and pulled out a small, flat box that had contained printing labels. It wouldn't make a very exciting-looking package, but it would serve its purpose.

He was just finishing tying a bow with some ribbon, having given up on the fact that it was supposed to be "curling" ribbon, when there was a soft knock at the door.

"Are you decent?" Quinn's voice traveled through the crack in the door.

"Well, I'm not wearing pants, or a shirt, but close enough," he said, hoping that the grin that was plastered on his face was not evident in his voice.

"I'd like to know how you accomplished that in the five minutes since you left the living room," she said, opening the door. "Especially since you were wearing a completely buttoned up shirt and vest, and I know it takes you at least five minutes just to get your pants off."

He burst out laughing, and her face reddened.

"Did I just say that out loud? I hope nobody heard."

He laughed harder. "They probably didn't...it was a lot quieter than you think it was. And yes, stating the obvious, but it was out loud."

"Left your wrapping till the last minute, didn't you?" she said, gesturing towards his bed. It kind of looked like a wrapping paper bomb had gone off.

"Maybe," he said, grinning. "These are for you, but you can't have them until later. And one of them is for when we're alone."

"You're not giving me a coupon for you in the gold bikini, are you? Because I've already done that. Don't get me wrong...I would pay to see you in that outfit, I just hope that you're more original than that."

"Damn," he said, trying not to laugh. "HOW DID YOU KNOW?"

"I came to tell you that the food's almost ready," she said. "Your mom is in the kitchen right now if you want to put her gift under the tree."

Artie nodded, and Quinn pulled the package out from under his bed, unwrapping the sheet they had placed around it.

"Hang on, I'll get Michael," he said, preparing to leave the room.

"Wait," she said, holding up a hand. "I carried this thing out to the car from the mall, I'm pretty sure I can carry it the 20 feet to the living room."

"I could hold it and you could push me," he said, "but it's kind of wide and we'd probably get wedged in the door."

She laughed. "I've got it. Let's go."

Once the gift was securely stashed behind the Christmas tree with a bit of help from Artie's grandpa, everyone that wasn't already there made their way to the dining room.

**

* * *

**

Quinn wasn't sure how everyone was going to fit around the table, and she was glad when everyone was seated. She found herself sitting between Artie and his grandma, much to Lindsay's dislike.

The brunch was even more amazing than Quinn had thought it could ever be. She had found out in the kitchen that Beth and Artie's grandma had done most of the food preparation, and she made sure to thank everyone several times and comment on how delicious everything was.

After everyone had eaten their fill, Beth announced that they should probably tidy up before people started opening their presents.

"Mom, I can't wait any more!"Lindsay said, crossing her arms over her chest. "There's a box out there for me that looks like the ballroom dance class Barbie, and I need to open it now!"

Artie grinned. He knew that Lindsay had thoroughly examined every package sitting under the tree, and her guesses were accurate about 70% of the time, but no one ever told her that. He turned to his mom.

"I think we can tidy up later," he said, "We're already later than usual, and you know how Linds gets when she has to wait for stuff. She's scary."

"Hey!" the girl said, throwing her napkin across the table at her brother. "I'm not scary. I'm sweet and beautiful. You even said so!"

Everyone laughed, and Beth agreed that the tidying up could wait, as long as everything that needed to be refrigerated got put away.

As the food was being put away, Quinn ran out to the car to grab her gifts for Artie. She had decided to leave them there and get them later because she and Judy didn't have enough hands when they arrived, between the gift basket for the whole family and the tray of freshly baked croissants that they had picked up from Quinn's favourite bakery.

She took the gifts into the living room, and placed them underneath the tree, just as Artie entered the living room with two of his three gifts on his lap.

"Look away," he said, "or it'll be really obvious what these are."

"You look away too," she said, "I don't want your surprise to be spoiled."

"I get a surprise?" he asked, grinning. "Does it involve getting to do...naughty things?" By the time he got to the last part, his voice was barely above a whisper.

"That's for me to know, and you to...not know," Quinn said, smirking at him.

He was about to say something in response to that, when Lindsay came up behind him.

"Can I sit on my Artie chair to open presents? Can I open your presents?"

He grinned. "How about you sit BESIDE your Artie chair, so I can still, you know, move? You can help open my presents, and I bet Quinn will let you help with some of hers too."

She grinned back. "Ok. Quinn, can you sit beside me?"

Quinn agreed, sitting on the floor beside her.

"MOM! HURRY UP! I WANT TO OPEN SOMETHING!" the youngest Abrams yelled in the general direction of the kitchen.

**

* * *

**

As Beth and Aunt Marge returned to the living room, Lindsay started handing out presents, making sure that everyone had one. A couple of times she had to get Artie to help her read the tags, due to the fact that neat handwriting was another trait that was not dominant in the Abrams family.

When she was satisfied that everyone had something, she sat back down between Quinn and Artie, and delicately removed the wrapping paper from her gift, confirming her suspicions that there was, in fact, a ballroom dance class Barbie in the package.

Artie, having thanked Michael for his gift of Star Wars stationery (to which Michael replied something along the lines of "they make Star Wars everything!"), he bent down to whisper in Lindsay's ear.

"There's a really big one at the back for Mom. Don't get that out by yourself, ok? I want her to have it last, and it's really heavy."

Lindsay nodded, handing him a package. "I think this is from Quinn. It's smooshy."

He grinned. "There's a smooshy package for Quinn too. Give her that one, ok?"

He sat, watching Quinn open her package, his unopened one sitting on his knee. He really hoped she'd like the scarf.

"Artie, this is beautiful!" she said, wrapping it around her neck. "Where did you get it?"

"Oh, I...made it," he said quietly, a small smile on his face.

"You made it?" Quinn gasped, fingering the delicate tassels. "You don't know how to knit! Wait...you learned how to knit so you could make this for me?"

He grinned. "I had a little help from Aunt Marge, Captain Knitting, and trial and error. Do you like it?"

She stood up. "Like it? I love it. So much! The colour is perfect, and it's so soft, and...it smells like you." she whispered the last part in his ear, hugging him for the tenth time since she'd arrived at his house. "I love you," she added. "Now, open yours. Promise not to laugh."

He grinned, and tore open the paper.

"Had to upstage me, didn't you," he quipped, wrapping his own scarf around his neck. "I make a scarf, and you steal my idea and then make a hat too!"

She laughed, swatting him lightly with the end of her scarf.

"How do you know I made that?" she asked, trying not to laugh. "For all you know, I bought it at a craft fair."

He shook his head. "I know you made it because you weren't appropriately shocked when I shared the Captain Knitting news with you. I knew something was up at that point. Plus, it smells like you."

She couldn't hold her laughter in any more. "Artie!"

"What?" he said, his eyes twinkling. "That was the news of the century, and you didn't react appropriately. Therefore, you had to already have known about it. And why would you be looking at knitting videos unless you were knitting something? Plus, this package was shaped exactly like mine to you, and was just as smooshy, in the words of Linds."

"Do you like it?"

He smiled. "I love it. And I'll tell you what...now we both have scarves that smell like each other. Even when we're not together, it'll be like we are. As long as it's scarf weather. I might actually start wearing scarves all year long, just so I can wear this. I know that sounds ridiculously cheesy, but it's the truth."

She melted a little inside, and glanced around the room, somewhat relieved to see that everyone else was occupied and probably hadn't heard their conversation.

The mound of packages below the tree was growing steadily smaller by the time Lindsay handed Artie another gift from Quinn.

The first thing he noticed was that it was shaped EXACTLY like the one he had for her, and he started to panic a bit. They hadn't bought each other the same book, had they? That was a pretty standard size for a book, right?

Quinn grinned as Lindsay handed her another package from Artie, noticing that it looked very similar to the one she had just seen Lindsay give him, from her.

The Abrams family had given her a beautiful purple sweater, a set of lotions and bath products, a pair of gloves, and a gift card for her favourite coffee place, and Artie was glad when Lindsay finally handed her the other package from him, even if he was suspicious that the contents of his package and hers might be the same.

She grinned, as she pulled the paper off the book. "Artie, my favourite! Thank you!" she said, glancing at the package sitting on his lap. "Aren't you going to open that?"

He carefully took off the paper, to reveal the same book he had bought her.

"You kids are in each other's heads," Artie's grandfather piped up from his seat on the couch. "That's one of those signs that you're going to be together for a long time."

"Bill, you're embarrassing them!" Artie's grandma chided, from her seat beside him. "I do think you kids are just too adorable for words," she added, smiling at them.

Artie opened his copy of the book to see that Quinn had written him a long message inside, and signed her name and the date. He silently cursed himself for not having thought of that.

"Thanks Quinn, I love it!" he said. "I was actually going to buy this for myself next time I was shopping. I might have read parts of it before I wrapped it for you," he added, grinning.

She laughed. "Oh, so you gave me a used book? How thoughtful."

He grinned. "It was a labour of love! ...if that even makes sense."

Everyone in the room laughed.

"I have one more thing for you here, Artie," Quinn said, handing him the third parcel she'd brought for him. "I'm pretty sure you didn't get me this too," she added, grinning.

He pulled back the paper, revealing a framed photograph of the two of them, taken at his birthday.

"Wow, Quinn, this is so great," he said, his smile growing wider and wider.

Quinn smiled back. She had had Beth email her the picture so she could have it printed.

"I thought you could put it in your room," she said, "so all your other girlfriends know to keep their hands off."

Everyone in the room laughed again, and Artie's face reddened slightly.

"I'll...let them know," he said, "but I can't guarantee that they'll keep their hands off. I am pretty hot."

**

* * *

**

Finally, the last remaining present was Artie's gift to his mother. He nodded towards Michael, who got up and dragged the gift from behind the tree.

"Mom, this is for you," Artie said, as Michael delivered the package. "I hope you like it. And, before you ask...Quinn did most of the wrapping. And the ribbon thing. I just can't get that to work."

All eyes were on Beth as she carefully started removing the paper, one piece of tape at a time.

When she finally peeled back the paper, Quinn felt a lump starting to form in her throat. For a moment Beth just sat, staring at the collage. Quinn could tell that she wanted to say something, but would probably burst into tears if she tried.

Finally, she got up, leaned the frame against the couch, and went over to her son.

"Honey," she said, her voice trembling, "it's beautiful. Thank you. I don't even know what to say, and you know how rare that is."

Quinn watched as mother and son hugged, smiling at the display of love, and also at the fact that it was obvious at that moment that Artie had inherited his word-vomiting tendencies from his mother.

"You're welcome, Mom," Artie said, once she had released him from the hug. "I didn't know what to get you, and nothing seemed right, and then I decided that this would be good. I thought you could hang it in your office."

Beth grinned. "My office? No. This is going somewhere in the living room here. We'll take something else down."

He smiled. "Ok, you can take down my section of the school picture wall. I don't want anyone seeing those anyway."

She laughed, and said that those would definitely not be coming down.

"Oh, and don't worry," he added, "I didn't cut up the photo albums. All those pictures are copies."

"That hadn't even entered my mind yet," Beth said, looking lovingly at her son, "but thanks for clarifying."

He smiled. "Quinn helped. I didn't even want to cut the copies because it just felt WRONG, but she said it would have to happen to make it look good. And she was right."

Beth turned to Quinn, pulling her close. "Thank you honey. I love it."

Quinn grinned, hugging her back. "I knew you would."

**

* * *

**

After everyone's gifts had been opened, and the wrapping paper had been put in the recycling, Beth and Judy went to finish the tidy up of the kitchen.

Everyone that was left in the living room, with the exception of Quinn, Artie, and Lindsay started discussing past Christmases and funny things that had happened, and Artie decided it would be the perfect opportunity to give Quinn his third gift.

He excused himself from the living room, and nodded at her to follow him.

Once they were inside his room, he pulled the third gift out from under his blanket.

"This is for you," he said. "I hope you don't already have one."

She looked at the flat package questioningly, and opened the paper.

"Printer labels? I don't have one! How did you know?"

He grinned. "Open the box."

She pulled off the lid, to reveal a neat pile of handwritten sheet music.

"What is this, Artie?" she asked, running her hand gently over the first page.

"It's a song...I wrote it for you."

She stared at him. "You wrote me a song?"

He nodded. "I wanted to give you something special, and special things are really hard to find in stores!"

She grinned. "You give me something special every day that I'm with you."

He was unsure of what he could possibly say to follow that, so he just smiled.

"Are you going to sing it for me?" she asked, sitting down on his bed.

He grinned. "Well, that was why I wanted to give it to you in private..."

He grabbed his guitar, and started to sing.

"_And that's why you're beautiful to meeee,"_ he finished, placing his guitar back on the stand.

"I hope you liked it," he said.

"Artie, that was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard," she said, wiping a tear from her cheek. "I can't believe you wrote that for me."

He held open his arms, and wrapped them around her when she had settled into his lap.

"Do you have any idea how hard it was to put everything I wanted in one song? I think I'm going to have to write you an entire album."

She grinned.

"Artie...mistletoe" she said, pointing up at his ceiling.

"Mistletoe," he said, pulling her closer. "I love you, Quinn. Merry Christmas."

"I love you too," she said, moving so that her mouth was less than an inch from his. "Merry Christmas."

**A/N: Merry late Christmas! Sorry this didn't get posted in a timely fashion...technical difficulties.**

**I hope you enjoyed! I know...I could have gone into more detail in some places, but this is already REALLY long, and I didn't want to make it even longer! I don't want you guys to not read the whole thing because it's too long!**

**Artie's third gift a bit predictable? OH WELL. It made me all warm inside when I wrote that part. Actually...it made me all warm inside when I wrote this whole thing. It makes me all warm inside if I even THINK of Quartie. **

**...and I did not write a song for Artie to write for Quinn, which is why there aren't complete song lyrics there. I haven't written lyrics in a LONG time, and didn't trust myself not to wreck this whole story by writing an entire song. hahaha**

**I hope everyone's having a nice holiday season! Stay tuned for more oneshots coming up this week, and then on Saturday the QUARTIE FICATHON starts! Details can be found in the Quinn and Artie Forum, or you can PM me or Violet-Shadow for more details!**

**Even if you're not going to write for the ficathon, be sure to check out the prompts thread in the Forum...and post something that you want someone to write about! Remember...we can't write what you want if you don't tell us!**

**Also, I'm welcoming any ideas as to what Q and A should do for New Years. PM me or leave a review and let me know if there's something you want to see there!**

**...Longest author note ever! I seem to outdo myself with my verbosity on a regular basis. Good thing you guys love me anyway, even if I am incredibly wordy at times!**

**Oh...and one final thought: No, I did not forget about AJ's Christmas gifts for everybody...there will be a oneshot sometime in the next couple of days exploring that whole situation. Stay tuned!**


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